Audioserf

I had some time on my hands on Saturday afternoon and decided to match my sparkplug cover and intake manifold cover to my Cusco bar endlinks. I also painted my dipstick black to avoid shelling out $30 for a JDM dipstick that isn't even functional in the K24. I think it came out pretty well... but I'll let the Internet be the judge.

The paint isn't as light as it looks in this picture, the lighting is throwing it off. It is a much closer match to the Cusco parts in person.

CCColtsicehockey

haha wow not what I wanted to see. I was excited for a second and thought you went a crazy extra mile and went two tone with your engine bay actually. darn so much for my excitement.

still looks good though.

Audioserf

LOL, maybe I mis-titled this thread, I was looking for brevity, didn't want to say "Painted Sparkplug and Intake Manifold Covers" although I guess I should.

Two-toned engine bay would be sick though. Maybe if I'm ever showing, haha.

TacoBellSauce

nice
what paint did u use?
mines look similar but used metalcast paint

vthree

iTrader: (1)

what paint was used for the dipstick?
i too wanted to this route.. unsure. i was thinking about a sharpeee since its rubber?


lol!!!
lmk

tsxdriver

wow that looks really nice!!

Newplay1

That looks really good with the cusco strut-bar..

DAYTA

Wow, that looks very unique. Nice job! I'll definitely have to check it out in person .

Audioserf

Thanks all.

I was at Wal-Mart and saw Krylon's line of "XMetals" paint. The blue looked strikingly similar to Cusco blue so I picked up a can. They also had metallic purple, green, red, and gold that I remember.

As for the dipstick, I just picked a random can of heat-resistant black spraypaint. I sanded the dipstick lightly and gave it two or three coats. It came out a flat black, after which I clearcoated it to get it to shine a little.

CGTSX07

^^did you clear coat the spark plug cover and the intake manifold cover too? Also, did you sand off the old paint too?

Audioserf

I sanded the sparkplug cover/intake manifold cover with 200 grit paper to just lightly rough the surface up. Then I applied Krylon XMetals Converter (which is primer that you use if you're painting plastic), then four coats of the blue XMetals paint. I did not clearcoat. In retrospect it wouldn't have hurt to, but I don't think these parts are going to see much in the way of rock chips/general damage so I think it'll be OK.

Also, the clearcoat I used on the dipstick actually came out really thick and globby (you can't tell from a distance in my picture) and I was reluctant to risk doing that to my beautiful blue paintjob.

lcrazyaznl

iTrader: (1)

Shouldn't we use high temp paint as well ?
looks great by the way i was going to paint mine black with the nuespeed bar.

Audioserf

The XMetals is 500* heat resistant paint, so it's fine for an engine bay, I checked that before buying.

lcrazyaznl

iTrader: (1)

ah cool i just wanted to know if it was or not

Audioserf

Well I made at least ONE mistake apparently.

I forgot to glue the "A" on the sparkplug cover back on. When I popped my hood this evening the Goddamn thing had disappeared. I got a flashlight and poked around the engine bay and didn't see it anywhere so I assume it's long gone.

For those who don't know, it's secured to the sparkplug cover by two holes, similar to the A in back of our cars. I guess that wasn't enough to hold it on the cover during travel. Now I have two holes in it and it looks naked.

If anyone can help me find either the A by itself or the whole sparkplug cover, I would really appreciate it. I've scoured acuraoemparts.com and I can't find either.

This sucks!

Audioserf

Hey hey! I found it on oemacuraparts.com - http://www.oemacuraparts.com/partloc...layCatalogid=2.

$10 mistake. I'll live. Time to place the order!

LoveMyTL-S

That looks sick! Nice job..... How many cans of paint did it take to do both covers?

Audioserf

I got the two covers done with one can of blue (almost finished it) and one can of primer. I'd buy two of the color in case you screw up and have to re-do anything (it could happen if you haven't spraypainted much before, trust me!) besides its fairly cheap.

LoveMyTL-S

Nice........and what kind of primer did you use? I may do this mod this week.

cybereclipse

i can only imagine the insurance claim the guy behind u on the freeway placed
his windshield was cracked by a "flying acura logo"?!?!

mltk53

too much blue imo

HONgDA

iTrader: (1)

I have that small emblem i don't need anymore. I could've sold it to you cheaper.

Audioserf

Same brand, Krylon Xmetals. The Primer spraycan has a grey lid and it's called either Primer or Converter, but it shouldn't be hard to spot.

Don't forget the 200grit sandpaper, and spend as much time as you can masking the "iVTEC" plate on the intake manifold cover with painter's tape. As I'm sure you know after your great caliper job, it's 90% prepwork, 10% painting! Also key to note: either remove the masking tape as soon as you finish painting, or, score the edge of the tape with a razorblade before peeling it up. I didn't do this the first time around and I ripped up some of the blue paint, necessitating a re-spray.

To Cybereclipse: I don't even know for sure if it fell out on the freeway or even if it left my car, it might be somewhere down on my splashguard where I can't see it. But it would make for an awkward call to Geico, that's for sure.

To HONgDA: thanks for the offer, if I ever screw this one up I'll keep you in mind! Haha.

LoveMyTL-S

One more question. How does the Acura emblem come off? And you just glue it back on?

Audioserf

It has two prongs going through holes to the back of the sparkplug cover. The prongs are secured by clips. From the looks of the clips, they were designed to be put on once and never taken off. So I ended up snapping the prongs off with pliers and just pulling the emblem off. That method leaves you with two little stubs on the "A" to put back in the holes, and if you put some crazy glue on the stubs it should hold fine. I just forgot the glue part.

LoveMyTL-S

Gotcha! Thanks for the help. I'll probably do this later in the week. Hope it turns out as nice as yours did.

Audioserf

Post pics! Good luck. It's not tough, just take your time and be thorough.

LoveMyTL-S

Sure will.......thanks again.

bluefang08

Very nice, think I may do this to mine.

LoveMyTL-S

Okay, today I got all the supplies and did this mod.... Took about 2 hours, taking my time of course. Here's a quick DIY:
Bought the XMetals Blue and primer. You will also need painters tape, super glue, xacto knife or something sharp to cut with, a couple of rags, 10mm socket/wrench and 220 grit sand paper.



Use a 10mm socket to remove the covers. They come off pretty easily. I noticed it was dirty under them and used a wet rag to clean it. Also, used another clean wet rag to clean both covers really good. Prep is most of the work and helps with the finished product. You can see the dirt that was under the Acura logo on the back cover.



After cleaning the covers I took the Acura logo off. When removing the logo you have to break it off. I just used needle nose pliars to pull the back fasteners off. And a flat tip screw driver to carefully pry the logo off. It's only plastic.

I sanded both with the 220 grit sandpaper. I just went over it lightly. I then put down some newspapers on the garage floor. Spread them out well in case of overspray. I had an old metal lamp frame and layed it on the paper. I put the covers on it to spray them. I sprayed the back cover first with the primer.



While the back cover was drying, I took the front cover and using the painters tape covered the I-Vtec logo in the middle. I used a sparp cutter to score it.



After scoring I primed the front cover. Only one good coat on each cover.



Next I sprayed both covers with the XMetals blue, giving them 3 coats each.



Here is the finished product. It was almost dark when I took these pictures. I didn't paint the dip stick handle, but I might do that later.



I used super glue to glue the logo back onto the cover. I noticed when I put the logo back on it did kinda click in. So between the glue and it clicking in, I think it's on pretty good.







All in all I think it came out pretty good. The op of this thread used the XMetals converter. I used regular primer. His results may be a little different than mine and his may have more sparkle to it. Hope this helps anyone that may be considering doing this mod.

Audioserf

Looks good man. Thanks for the pictorial DIY. I think you got a deeper blue than me due to using normal primer. As for the logo, between super glue and the two stubs clicking into the holes you'll be fine. My replacement logo should arrive Wednesday.

LoveMyTL-S

Yea, I think it did come out darker.......but still like it over the stock silver. It was kinda scratched here and there. I couldn't believe how much dirt got under the logo!

Audioserf

That's funny, there really wasn't that much dirt under my logo. But then again your whole engine bay looks a lot dirtier than mine too, so maybe that's it. Get thee some engine bay cleaner, man! Stat!

vthree

iTrader: (1)

yall could do the fuse box cover too =)
heheh looks goood. i'm going with the black/silver theme in the engine bay.. all i had to do was buy an element cover

LoveMyTL-S

Nice. There's plenty of black under the hood. Post up pics.......

LoveMyTL-S

Yea I need to clean the whole engine.......